Helping university students find a sense of community by connecting them with likeminded peers.
Role
Sole UX/UI Designer
Duration
4 Weeks
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Photoshop
👉 Overview 👈
University can be a stressful period for students as they struggle finding empowerment in their new environment.
Constructing a platform that is engaging, intuitive and helps university students adjust and grow with their peers. Hubbub's goal is to provide users with a way to stay connected with like minded peers and university.
Problem
Transitioning into university can be extremely stressful for students, whether it’s due to the new workload, or the difficulty meeting people. As a result university students' experience is usually strained.
Goal
With this in mind, the goal is to build a community for students to easily connect with other peers while helping them better connect with their university through up to date information and events.
Research
Research
Desk researchHow is it being a student at university?
Before starting the design process I wanted to learn more about university student and exactly how they are affected by certain factors like the change in environment, increase in workload, and lack of support system.
While reading through different studies I found out that most university students struggle adjusting mainly due to struggling to find a core group that they can rely on.
study about daily stress levels of students
Competitive AUDITIs there a gap in the market?
With some background research I wanted to dig further and explore the current market. As the current market stands there was no student catered platform that provided users with factual information about their university, while giving students the ability to connect with friends.
A majority of the competitors either were a form of social media, or a forum like platform that lacked the ability to connect other students through their university.
“I really never know what’s happening at FIU until the day of.”
user interviewsTalking to students
Knowing that there was a gap in the market, I wanted to get to know exactly how to address this need. I conducted user interviews with the objective of trying to understand students' pain points and goals. I found that a majority of students specifically freshman lack school spirit, and feel like their expectations of university life are completely different.
student responses when asked about information on events
Interview questions
01
Are there any challenges you faced as a student that moved away from home?
02
Are you able to find information pertaining to your university?
03
How do you feel about your current university experience?
04
If currently dissatisfied, what would help improve your experience?
data collected about factors that affect FIU students
KEY FINDINGSAfter completing the interviews I discovered that
All participants wished for a better way to stay up to date with upcoming university events.
Some participants reported feeling lost or uninterested at their university
Most users found it difficult to meet and make friends at their university
Design Goals
Design Goals
In order to keep the user in mind while designing I created a persona
18 | Student at FIU
Franny is a freshman at university. She moved away from her hometown to the school of her dreams. With her busy schedule and full time job as a barista has made university life difficult for Franny. Recently Franny has been struggling to meet people. this has taken a toll on not only her mental health but her grades as well. Franny would like to have time to branch out and meet people without compromising her grades.
Goals
Make friends at her university.
Improve her mental health and stress levels.
Get on the Dean’s list for the upcoming semester
Frustrations
Has no time to look for clubs or events.
Hasn’t been able to make friends due to workload.
Feels anxious about the lack of support system
impact effort matrix to decide on app design
key insightsWith the research in mind I decided to place some emphasis on certain details
It's important to give students a way to connect with their peers and build a sense of community on the platform.
Come up with a calendar and notification system that reminds students of important events and updates.
With the majority of students accessing the internet through their mobile devices, designing a mobile-first platform is essential.
I created a user flow diagram to better understand the steps a user would take to complete the main feature of the app
User flow
“As a user I want to be able to post and view events to better connect with other students
Design Exploration
Design Exploration
sketchingAddressing the user needs
I started by sketching the necessary screens in order to see what would help provide the user with the best experience. I wanted to give users with multiple features that would help create a sense of community on the app.
initial sketches of main screens
wireframesGoing in a different direction
While deciding the layout of the application I originally combined both student posts and events into one page. However after careful consideration I concluded that it would be best to create a separate event page in order to not overcrowd the user with too much information. By separating these two features into two screens, it would allow users to better locate the information they were looking for.
wireframes of main screens
Once I felt confident that the users' needs were addressed I moved onto prototyping so I determine whether the current user flow was enjoyable
User Testing
User Testing
usability studyTesting the designs
With the initial prototype complete I went on to test it on five participants from FIU through an unmoderated usability study.
Participants were asked to complete a set of tasks that reflected the potential user flow, and complete a series of questions to better gage their user experience.
user satisfaction survey
5
Participants
18-22
Ages
30
Minute sessions
Study goals
01
Are there any areas of the current app that properly address the users pain points?
02
Were there any points of the user journey in which the user got stuck? If so, did the user end up finishing?
03
Do users feel like the current app features could potentially enhance their current university experience?
affinity map of user feedback
key findingsAfter completing the usability study I was able to discover some issues users were facing
Redesign the way users see events on the home page to ease confusion.
Create an onboarding flow to explain to users the purpose of the app.
Keep users interested and engaged by implementing new features on the app: story feature, rsvp for events, include more details on the event page.
Based on the feedback from the participants I made the necessary changes to the app displayed below.
Final Design
Final Design
Before and after study of discover screen
Before and after study of event screen
Before and after study of home screen
Style Guide
DESIGN EXPLANATIONMaking the design colorful
The goal of this app was to provide university students at FIU with a way to better connect with like minded peers while staying up to date with any upcoming university events. Therefore I wanted the app to feel bright and upbeat to help engage users. I implemented rounded edges, a bright color scheme, and playful icons.
prototype of final user journey
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Takeaways
As a recent university graduate I found it difficult at times to branch out of my inner circle, however while working on this app I was able to address those personal pain points I faced in university. Through this journey I delved deeper into different struggles university students face and how strenuous it can be to transition from high school to university. While starting out I had a lot of ideas as to how to address the problem. With the help of my research I was able to pinpoint why students may struggle with mental health while in university. As a result I managed to niche down and really address those key issues.
Next steps
Expand Out
Currently the app is made for users attending FIU, but growing pains are issues present in most if not all campuses. I think expanding the platform to include other universities would have a positive effect on today's university students.
Scale Up
Creating a web version would be beneficial as it would allow for more features like a review system for courses, and professors.
Support System
In order to improve users mental health implementing helpline feature for users to contact during stressful times when unable to access university resources.
